Rw. Skelton et al., Humans with traumatic brain injuries show place-learning deficits in computer-generated virtual space, J CL EXP N, 22(2), 2000, pp. 157-175
Citations number
52
Categorie Soggetti
Psycology,Neurology
Journal title
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
Spatial learning and memory has been linked to the hippocampus and temporal
lobes and though these areas are often damaged in traumatic brain injury (
TBI), spatial learning deficits after TBI have not received much attention.
In the present study, a virtual environment was used to challenge people w
ith TBI to solve a task comparable to the Morris water maze, which in turn
has been shown to be highly sensitive to hippocampal and frontal lobe dysfu
nction in laboratory animals. A regular computer monitor was used to presen
t 12 participants with TBI and 12 age- and sex-matched comparison participa
nts with a computer-generated, three-dimensional "virtual arena maze,'' con
sisting of a large round arena within a very large square room. Participant
s were required to learn the place of an invisible target on the floor of t
he room based solely on distal cues on the walls of the room. Eight of the
12 participants with moderate to severe TBI showed substantial place-learni
ng deficits in comparison to the uninjured participants. Performance in the
virtual environment correlated with self-reported frequency of wayfinding
problems in everyday life and with scores on a test of episodic memory, the
Rivermead Behavioural Memory Task. These data confirm that deficits in spa
tial learning and memory follow TBI, and suggest that the virtual arena maz
e may provide a new method for objectively assessing them.